1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus including a user interface for the control of a machine tool, and more particularly, to a user interface for the visual presentation of machine tool information to the user of the apparatus.
2. Relevant Art
Along with machine tools that can execute merely a single task at a particular time, machine tools with several processing units are known in the art in which particular tasks can be executed simultaneously and independently of one another. For example, the particular tasks may include the simultaneous grinding and dressing of a grinding wheel or the simultaneous ram-type electrical discharge machining and milling of an additional eroding electrode. In addition, there exist varied additional possibilities for executing particular tasks independently of one another on separate processing units of one machine tool. In order to accomplish this, it is desirable to present visually various information that is assigned to the different processing units, i.e., graphic representations of the current processing situation or of the current state of operation, among many other things. It must furthermore be ensured, from the control side of a machine tool, that inputs provided by a user are assigned to the desired processing unit. In particular, the user should be able to recognize without difficulty which of the available processing units the inputs made or intended to be made actually relate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,252,899 discloses a numerical control for a machine tool that includes several controllers. The various controllers can manage various control tasks all at once and are also suited for parallel processing of various processing tasks of one machine tool. Through a bus structure the controllers are connected to various peripheral components among which is also a display unit which includes an input unit. The display and input unit can consequently be utilized by each of the controllers provided. Details regarding the visual presentation of the information for the various processing units as well assigning inputs to a definite processing unit are not disclosed.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus including a user interface for the control of a machine tool that includes several separate processing units that can execute particular tasks simultaneously and independently of one another on a workpiece with a visual presentation of information relating to each processing unit.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, window technology is henceforth employed for the visual presentation of information of interest on a display unit. On the display unit side at least one display which can be selected or activated by the user and in which various information for the various processing units can be represented, is assigned to each processing unit. Context-related input capabilities referring to each display window are provided for the user. Simultaneously it is ensured that the entered inputs are assigned to the desired processing unit by the user or it is unambiguously evident to the user to which processing unit the inputs entered or to be entered relate.
Consequently, within the inventive apparatus for the control of a machine tool with several processing units, technologies for visually presenting information are employed that are known in the art from operating or user interfaces such as MICROSOFT(trademark) WINDOWS(trademark). The use of technologies of this type permits an intuitive operation of the machine tool in question connected with the capability of always simply informing oneself of the current state of operation of a processing unit or showing other information of interest.
Machine tool controls using WINDOWS(trademark) are already known in the art. In general, for example, reference is made to see Rabe, H. J., xe2x80x9cVeredeltxe2x80x94CNC Bahnsteuerung unter Windowsxe2x80x9d [Enhanced CNC Path Control under WINDOWS] Elektronik Praxis Nr. 7, pp. 134-136, Apr. 14, 1994. There is no disclosure, however, of a machine tool control with several processing units.
Further advantages as well as details of the preferred embodiments of the present invention follow from the following description of preferred embodiments with the aid of the accompanying figures.